India’s apex food safety body, The Food Safety and Standard authority of India (FSSAI) on Sunday launched a project to tackle micro-plastic exposure in food products.
This initiative is a research project to generate data on micro-plastic exposure level and presence of tiny plastic residues in the food products such as salt and sugar and in the environment.
The initiative launched following the exposure levels raised among consumers amid evidence of micro-plastic contamination in food products.
FSSAI partners with several Indian Institutions for the project
FSSAI has collaborated with several Indian research institutions to study and validate methods to measure microplastics in various food products.
The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (Pilani), the ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (Kochi), and the CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (Lucknow) collaborated in the study are among the top research institutes in the nation working together on this project.
The project is named “Micro and Nano-Plastics as Emerging Food Contaminants: Establishing Validated Methodologies and Understanding the Prevalence in Different Food Matrices”
FSSAI, in an official statement said that, this project aims to evaluate prevalence and exposure levels of micro and nano plastics in India and to develop and validate analytical methods for their detection in different food products.
FSSAI, in an official statement said that, this project aims to evaluate prevalence and exposure levels of micro and nano plastics in India and to develop and validate analytical methods for their detection in different food products.
According to FSSAI, the primary objective of this initiative is to develop standard protocols for micro and nano plastics analysis and conducting intra- and inter laboratory comparisons and generating critical data on exposure levels among consumers.
Global presence of micro plastics in food items
A recent report released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation underscored the exposure of micro plastics prevalence in food items such as salt and sugar. The report highlighted that iodised salt had the highest contamination of micro plastics (89.15 pieces per kilogramme) and organic rock salt had the lowest (6.70 pieces per kilogramme). Microplastic concentrations in sugar samples varied from 11.85 to 68.25 pieces per kilogramme; non-organic sugar had the greatest concentration.
